Dear Family!

Wow as I sit down to write this email I have realized that not a lot happened this week. It was really slow and boring now that I think about it. It didn't feel boring but I guess I just don't have a lot to write about today. I think this past week was slow because this week is going to be a big one. We have transfers this week and from the rumors I have heard it's going to be a big one.  Due to Sister Pongi's unexpected transfer out of the area there is a greater chance that I might stay but die to the fact that I have been in this area four months I would say I am probably getting transferred. There are only six new sisters coming into the mission though I don't think I will be training and that is a first for me. I just wonder where I will be emailing you from next week. Oh my goodness I am so nervous but so excited at the same time. I enjoy change now. It's refreshing. I LOVE this area and I LOVE the ward that I serve in but I am ready for a change. It feels like I have been here for so long. I have been walking the same streets for months and I am just ready for a change. But then part of me doesn't want to leave all of the amazing friends I have made over the past few months here. I just can't believe that I was so devastated when I heard that I was leaving the VC and headed for Rotorua and then I got here and I loved it so much. It's just funny how Heavenly Father works. I don't think anything too crazy will happen to me this time though. I just think that I will be moved to a different area and given a regular companion. It should be interesting. I bet you are as excited as I am to find out!

 

So as far as the work in the area is going I love it and we are having a lot of success. But when it comes down to it I don't think you really want to hear all the boring details about what we taught who this week. Something that I have learned this week however is patience with people and their agency. We are teaching this 21 year old girl who was a referral from a member. She is really nice and very sweet but she has some medical issues and one of them causes her to be severely overweight and it's hard for her to concentrate sometimes on what we are teaching her. I guess just teaching her has taught me patience and it's interesting that I love her so much already just because I can see what Heavenly Father sees in her. Well the week before last when Sister Pongi was here we all prayed about a date that she would be ready to be baptized by and it's so cool because we all three came up with the same date. Like we each wrote down the date we felt and then compared it and they were all the same. It's funny too because we had initially thought she could be ready sooner but for some reason this later date stuck out to all three of us. So we know that Heavenly Father is saying that she will be ready by this date. Well we taught her and tried to set that date with her but she kept saying that she isn't ready so we told her that we prayed to know and this is the date the Heavenly Father told us. We then invited her to pray about it and ask God if she will be ready by then. When we met with her again later on that week she was saying that she had prayed but hadn't received and answer yet and so she still felt like she wasn't ready. The thing is I can tell from her face though that she is ready and she knows it. She has come so far and grown so much but she can't see that. We just told her to keep praying that Heavenly Father would answer her prayers and she said that she would. It was funny though because after the lesson the member who first introduced us said "I admire your patience. I know she is ready to be baptized. I can see it and I know she knows it she is just too scared to admit it. Its a good thing I'm not the missionary because I just don't have that kind of patience." Now I have never thought of myself as a patient person and I definitely have a long way to go! But if this member thought I was being patient then I must be making some progress.

 

Well I guess that is all for this week. I am sorry that it's short and boring. I really don't have anything else to report. I am looking forward to this week and the changes that it brings. I just wish that if I have to move that Sister Doole would move with me because I love her so much. She is like my best friend now and we have so much fun together. I love that through my mission I have been able to make some of the best friends. Friends that I will be able to keep for a life time. I love when we have zone conferences or mission conferences because I get to see all of my friends and it's like we have never been separated. It's so much fun! I love Sister Doole! I love New Zealand! I love my mission!

 

I love and miss you all!

 

Love,

Maquel